Bronson plays about an 125 year old cop who is
convinced he knows the identity of a serial killer, despite the fact
that the killer has an airtight alibi for the last murder. Lacking
any hard evidence, Bronson plants some. When he is caught falsifying
the evidence, he is fired from the police force, and decides to go
after the bad guy by himself. When the bad guy surrenders, and
taunts Bronson with a potential insanity defense, Bronson simply
kills the guy in cold blood, while he is standing there naked and
handcuffed, in front of dozens of witnesses. The film ends right
there.

Exploitation city! In addition to the manipulative
portrayal of the violence committed by the killer as well as by
Bronson, there is also a monumental amount of nudity, featuring Gene
Davis, the look-alike brother of Brad Davis from Midnight Express.
Davis commits all of his crimes while stark naked, and we see it
all. In a couple of cases his victims are naked as well. In the
first murder detailed in the film, a naked Davis chases a naked June
Gilbert through an entire forest about the size of the Soviet Union.

Wouldn't this have been a great opportunity for a
sequel? Bronson is clearly guilty of first degree murder, and has no
possible legal defense. He's either going to get the chair or a
sentence to spend the rest of his life getting beaten and sodomized
in prison, where he will receive especially unpleasant treatment,
since he's a cop who acknowledged falsifying evidence.

Unfortunately, there was to be no sequel. We have
to imagine that Big Chuck has done the right thing.

Given his age when this movie was made, I suppose
he could have gotten off by using a senility defense.

I was surprised to see the singer Jeane Manson in this
film in a minor role (with some nudity), and then I realized that I
was unaware of a big chunk of her life, an American portion, which
began as a Playmate and ended with this movie.

NUDITY REPORT

Gene Davis was naked throughout much of the
movie, including frontal nudity. Two other men showed their
buns in brief sex scenes.

June Gilbert did full frontal and rear
nudity as the first victim.

Patty Tippo bared her breasts in a very
brief sex scene.

Jeane Manson, as a hooker, bared her
breasts as she got undressed

Ola Ray bared her buns and breasts getting
into and taking a shower. Her pubic hair is visible in the
full screen version

Widescreen anamorphic 1.85, and a full
screen version. Pretty good transfers, although slightly
grainy

no meaningful features

She is now one of the most popular female recording
artists and musical theater divas in French history, and her face is
well known in that country,
having appeared on ten best-selling albums. She is a versatile
singer, having performed everything from opera to C&W to Broadway
tunes to the traditional style of French popular chanson. She is also
a respected stage and TV actress, having achieved first artistic
success on stage, then universal recognition as the star of 130
episodes of Riviera, a sort of French version of Dynasty. She's even a
published poet!

Despite her fame in France,
this American girl is known in the States (if at all) only for her
minimal screen career and her appearances in Mr. Hefner's famous
magazine from 1974 to 1979, which I was not aware of until today! It's
interesting, because she is probably the most accomplished former
Playmate in history, yet the magazine rarely or never mentions her in
retrospectives.

TUNA's THOUGHTS

10 to Midnight (1983) is half
slasher film, and half "Bronson gets even". Someone is slashing
young girls, and police Lieutenant Bronson is working the case.
Things get more personal for him when his own daughter, a
nursing student, becomes a target, stalked by the killer.
Bronson tries to frame the killer, but is convinced to tell the
truth by an idealistic partner, and is fired. At this point,
Bronson starts stalking the killer.

With better acting, this story could have been a much better
film. Bronson coasted simply trying to look mean, and we saw
nearly no character development from anyone. The twist of
Bronson becoming a stalker was a clever idea, but was wasted
here. There was a very high body count, but not too much gore.
The nudity was well lit.

The meaning of the IMDb
score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of
excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars
from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm
watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars
from the critics. The fives are generally not
worthwhile unless they are really your kind of
material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics.
Films rated below five are generally awful even if you
like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one
and a half stars from the critics or even less,
depending on just how far below five the rating
is.

My own
guideline: A means the movie is so good it
will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not
good enough to win you over if you hate the
genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an
open mind about this type of film. C means it will only
appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover
appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but
will be considered excellent by genre fans, while
C- indicates that it we found it to
be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you
like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if
you love the genre. F means that the film is not only
unappealing across-the-board, but technically
inept as well.

Any film rated C- or better is recommended for
fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is
recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C-
that often, because we like movies and we think that most of
them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know
that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below
C-.

Based on this description,
Scoop says, "this
film is a C-. It is a repulsive, manipulative film that
justifies vigilante justice, and the star (Gene Davis) is a
completely wooden and effeminate actor. However, one must give
the devil his due. It delivers "in the moment" with some tension
and some shocks, and effectively manipulates you into
sympathizing with Bronson's illegal activities". Tuna says, "D+"